Blog Archives

June was a pretty great month in cinematic shenanigans for me, even if it was light on feature films (more on that after the cut). Halfway through the month I joined the Battleship Pretension podcast for their retrospective episode on the late Agnès Varda. I also saw a lot of really artistically challenging films (and binged a ton of soapy TV!). As always, you can see everything I watched and read a little bit about my favorites after the cut.

Patrick Denham: Let me tell you something else. Honestly – I’m not bullshitting here – this is one of the nicest boats I’ve ever been on. I gotta tell ya.Jordan Belfort: I bet it is.Patrick Denham: Hey, you know what I was just thinking, too? The fucking hero that I’m going to be back at the office when the Bureau seizes this fucking boat, because I mean fuckity fuck fuck, Jordan, look at this thing! It’s beautiful! And you’ve got the beautiful girls and everything. It’s wonderful.Jordan Belfort:[laughing] Alright, get the fuck off my boat.

John The Baptist: Love. What does it mean? Love is sweet as honey, but it’s also blood. Love is action. You want a new crop, you burn the earth.Jesus: But isn’t love enough?John The Baptist: No, no! Look at the world around you! Plague, war, corruption, false prophets, false idols, worship of gold! Nothing is of value. The tree is rotten. You have to take the ax and cut it down.Jesus: If I was a woodcutter, I’d cut. If I was a fire, I’d burn. But I’m a heart and I love. That’s all I can do.

A lot has been written about this film by people who know it a lot better than I do, so I’m gonna preface this by saying what I want to do with this piece is not a full analysis of the film, but rather snippets of thoughts and ideas that ran through my head when I watched it Thursday last at the Castro Theatre. I first saw Taxi Driver when I was about 15 (I rented it on VHS and I did not tell my parents) and I don’t think I really understood what I was watching. Really, going into the screening on Thursday, all I remembered from the film was the scene where Robert De Niro takes Cybill Shepherd to the porno theater. That was the first time I ever saw porn. Needless to say, it was shocking. Believe it or not, that was the only time I’d seen the film before this last time. So I have only seen it twice now. I’m guessing it’s a movie that gets richer each time you watch it, much like my favorite Scorsese film, 1985’s criminally under-seen After Hours. I would also like to mention that 1976 is a year where I can’t really say I wish one film beat another film. For me, it’s a year where all of the nominees are so important and so different, that choosing just one seems like a disservice. Well, four of them, anyway, as I have not yet seen Bound For Glory. Although Taxi Driver won the Palm d’Or at the Cannes film festival, it received only four Academy Award nominations and failed to win in any of the categories: Best Picture, Best Actor Robert De Niro, Best Supporting Actress Jodie Foster and Best Original Score. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were All The President’s Men, Bound For Glory, Network and winner Rocky.

Jimmy: I know you from some place.Francine: No.Jimmy: You don’t remember me?Francine: No.Jimmy: You don’t remember we met a few years ago? It was at a party or a dance. We had a long conversation. You can’t remember that?Francine: No.Jimmy: I just want to explain to you, first of all, my parents are over there, my mother and father, my brother and sister. So I got to see them because I just was two years in the service, you know, so they haven’t see me. Now, I want to get your phone number so I can tell you tomorrow about what I was thinking about. There’s something very, very important I’ve got to talk to you about.Francine: No.Jimmy: No what? No what?Francine: No.Jimmy: No?Francine: No.Jimmy: No, no, no. You don’t understand. Give me your number. You got a pencil or something?Francine: No.Jimmy: All right. I have a photographic memory. Just give me your number, and I’ll remember it.Francine: No.Jimmy: Yes.Francine: No.Jimmy: Yes.Francine: No.Jimmy: Can I meet you at Central Park? I’m serious.Francine: I know. No.Jimmy: I mean, come on. There’s no way…Francine: No!

Max Cady: Every man carries a circle of hell around his head like a halo. Your daddy too. Every man. . .every man. . .has to go through hell to reach his paradise. You know what paradise is? Danielle Bowden: No. Max Cady: Salvation.

I’ve actually only seen two of these five films, but I loved both of them. So. Much. Stanwyck. TCM is partnering with Sony (aka Columbia) and Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation to release these films in a box set called Frank Capra: The Early Collection, which will be released on Monday, Sept. 3. The releases will include introductions by Robert Osborne, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard and Michel Gondry, as well as audio commentaries by film historians Jeanine Basinger and Jeremy Arnold. More information after the cut.

The festival was two weeks ago and it was amazing. I did a lot of coverage/interviews this year over at YAM Magazine, and now that it has all posted I wanted to make sure you guys over here got to read it all.

Girl: Well, I’m not used to admitting I like Westerns.J.R.: Oh, yeah. Why not, huh? Everybody should like Westerns. Solve everybody’s problems if they liked Westerns.Girl: Okay, I like Westerns!J.R.: Okay, then.